I've been covering the business of news, information and entertainment in one form or another for more than 10 years. In February 2014, I moved to San Francisco to cover the tech beat. My primary focus is social media and digital media, but I'm interested in other aspects, including but not limited to the sharing economy, lifehacking, fitness & sports tech and the evolving culture of the Bay Area. In past incarnations I've worked at AOL, Conde Nast Portfolio, Radar and WWD. Circle me on Google+, follow me on Twitter or send me tips or ideas at jbercovici@forbes.com.

Are You The Perfect Always-On Employee? No Problem. Here's How To Fake It.

"I was meeting with clients all day. Didn't you see my tweets?" (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Your grandpappy had to walk four miles through waist-deep snow to get to school in the morning, uphill all the way, as he never tires of reminding you. But in some ways, he had things easier in his day.

When he grew up and got a job, no one ever gave him a Blackberry and told him to keep it handy at all times. When he asked for a day off, no one said, “Just make sure you’re available.” If he was a real workaholic, maybe he called the office from vacation to check in, but he certainly didn’t spend the flight answering emails. A conference was something he did in a conference room, not from the deck of his fishing boat, via Bluetooth.

If you have a job anywhere in the Information Economy — or anywhere in the modern workforce, really — all of the preceding will surely be drearily familiar. Even as the evidence piles up that working more than 40 hours a week kills your productivity while vacations, weekends, lunch hours and other breaks boost it dramatically, workers are ceding more and more of their free time to their employers, afraid of looking like slackers at a time when good jobs are scarce.

That’s not just paranoid thinking. A recent study published by the MIT Sloan Management Review underscored the importance of being seen by one’s boss as available at all times. According to the authors, telecommuters tend to get worse performance reviews than their peers who work on site, even when objective measures show their work to be of equal quality. Accounting for the difference, they concluded,

is what we call passive face time. By that we are not referring to active interactions with coworkers or clients, but merely to being seen in the workplace. To be credited with passive face time you need only be observed at work; no information is required about what you are doing or how well you are doing it.

In other words, even when your boss doesn’t have any work for you to do, she wants to know you’re available if something comes up, and not just during business hours. That’s supremely depressing for those of us who value our free time.

Fortunately, it can also be turned to your advantage, provided you’re not above a little innocent subterfuge. Call it “perception management.” The same tools that keep you tethered to your job 24/7 — your smart phone, your email, your social media accounts — can also be used to cultivate the impression that you’re on high alert when you’re actually checked out.

Here at FORBES, we’re no strangers to the demands of the always-on workforce. I canvassed my colleagues, as well as some of our social media followers, with the question: How do you fake being an always-on employee while keeping your off hours as work-free as possible?

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All of the “faking” would stress me out more than any type of actual work. When someone is being deceptive in any way, their blood pressure rises and heart rate goes up. That is what lie detectors track, and i does not sound very restful to me. If it is necessary to be deceptive to survive in current office environments, that is unacceptable. The best way to be productive while living a meaningful life is to be your own boss. That is the ONLY way to avoid the ridiculous circus that modern communications technology has created in our lives.

Deborah L Jacobs, I just joined Forbes and wanted to comment on article that relates. Article you wrote was Ways Companies Get Rid of Employees. Appreciated the focus on employees who were ready to retire. You may have another story if you ask the question, Were Any Employees Fired Because Company Had Committed A Felony? I had 13 years of high performance reviews but my Board was taken over by leaders in the community who have no moral values. One of Board members used taxpayer funds for personal gain. I worked with FBI after I was dismissed. FBI sent case to County State Attorney. He expunged case because he was a personal friend of felon. I could have used felon case to help me in my federal dismissal case. Ended up losing $250,000 in potential salary, health insurance and pension funds because I was 60 years old when it happened. In America good workers who perform well deserve better and communities who want to grow need better leaders.